WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 147, 21 June 1917, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

PROHIBITED VOLTTNTAKY ENLISTMENT. THE FIRST DIVISION. (Special Correspondence.) WELLINGTON, June 20. The prohibition of voluntary' enlistment so far as members of the First Division arc concerned is being attributed by some people to a desire on the part of the Minister of Defence to place the ignominy of compulsion, as his critics put it. upon those single men who have not seen their duty to the Empire till the eleventh hour. This is quite incorrect, and plainly unjust to Sir James Allen. The Minister has studiously avoided, as far as possible, making any distinction between voluntary and balloted recruits, and has never officially implied that the man going info camp under the one system is doinjr his duty more fully than the one going in under the other. But the arrangement by which the two systems have been running side by side has occasioned a good deal of unnecessary trouble and expense, to say nothing of confusion, and with the exhaustion of the First Division in sight Sir James considered the voluntary system, after adquate notice, might be discontinued without disadvantage to anyone. THE SECOND DIVISION. From present appearances it seems likely that several of the early classes in the Second Division will be required for service at the front, and it is very natural that the men included in these classes should be agitating for better pay for themselves and more generous provision for their dependents. So farl the Government has given no indication: of its attitude towards the demands that are being made upon it in this re- 1 sped, and, of course, will give none till I Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward are back in the Dominion; but it is fairly j certain that when the question comes up in Parliament a large majority of the private members will be found on the side of the agitators. THE RETURNING MINISTERS. Speculation as to the return of the Prime Minister and the Minister of; Finance is now reduced to such narrow; limits that no one can go very far astray in fixing the momentous day. It was stated some time ago that after voting Supply next week Parliament would ad journ for a fortnight or so in order to; allow the travellers time to gather up the reins of their Departments and to put the finishing touches to their measures for the session, but Sir James Allen, than whom no one can know better, says and delay of this kind will be unnecessary. The public, if one may judge from the outward and visible signs to be seen everywhere, is less anxious to learn what the Government is going to do next than it is to hear what its leaders have been doing while they have been away. WHEAT. The deputation that came down to Wellington from the Wairarapa district to interview the Minister of Agriculture the other day plainly had a very real (rrievance against someone in authority. The farmers whom the deputation represented had been led to believe that if they would sow part of their holdings in wheat the Government, in addition to guaranteeing them a good paying price for their crop, would give them every possible assistance in procuring suitable teed and labour-saving appliances. On this understanding they set about ploughing up their land, as a practical expression of their patriotism, and now have some 1500 acres lying fallow. But apparently seed is available only from private dealers at 8/6 or 0/6 a "bushel, and even then not of the quality or of the description required. No doubt Mr. Mac Donald will set matters right, as he has a, habit of doing, but some of the officers of his Department must have •been altogether out of sympathy with the spirit of his scheme.